Adult Education Budget - Community Recovery Fund Market Engagement

The West Midlands has been hit hard through the Global pandemic and a report ordered by House of commons shows that some of our communities and residents have been hit harder than others including young people, black and minority ethic (BAME) groups and low-income families. To help support recovery, we are seeing significant investments being made in employability provision and vocational training e.g. Kickstart, SWAPs (Sector Based Work Academy Programmes) and Level 3 provision. Gaining and improving skills helps with progression in employment and can help make a huge difference in one's working life. Whilst these initiatives help provide support both in "back into work" and "in-work progression", we know that there are a number of our residents who do not engage in these established routes, either because these programmes do not match their aspirations, they lack the confidence to engage, or simply they are not quite sure what they want to do next. The Objective To engage residents, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is establishing a £1m Adult Education Budget Community Support (the Fund) to help test and develop innovative ideas and skills activity from community based organisations, that help equip both the employed and unemployed residents from those most disadvantaged by the Pandemic back to a healthy place of employment.

Through the fund our intent is to provide community-based organisations with an opportunity to innovate and utilise their expertise in engaging individuals to help support their career progression through skills learning & development. We envision this to be done through a project-based approach in test and learn, we want to see innovative proposals that are focused on targeting specific groups of residents most in need and provide catalysts to inspire their future progression and life chances.

These projects can be focused on a range of skills themes e.g. green/sustainability in the community, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math or digital is to be focused on a range of resident groups including young BAME, women returners and over 50's. We do ask that employers are involved in the design of the project and play an active part in aspects of the delivery. West Midlands Combined Authority are looking for Community providers that can help us design and deliver the above objective. Funds of between £50,000 and £100,000 will be awarded to these providers across the West Midlands region.

Further information

We are seeking a minimum of one new project in each of the seven metropolitan areas - Birmingham, Solihull, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Coventry. Subject to funding there is scope to award further projects As mentioned above we are seeking innovative projects that inspire and have a clear skill focus e.g. STEM, digital, green/ sustainability and are designed to cater to the below priority groups.

Additional information: We are seeking to meet with potential suppliers/providers who feel they can help deliver the above objective and be available to join us in a supplier roundtable discussion. The purpose of this roundtable discussions is to get a feel for the market in order to help aid WMCA in the drafting of the final specification. As part of the process a set of questions will be sent prior to the scheduled discussion meeting to help understand the market and drivers.

Supplier Roundtable discussion meetings to be held during the week of 13th September

If you are interested in attending a roundtable discussion with WMCA, please contact Kiran Kang at

[email protected]